October 22, 2009|By Borzou Daragahi, Tribune Newspapers. Paul Richter of the Washington Bureau and special correspondents Julia Damianova in Vienna and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

BEIRUT — Deft diplomacy and regional security woes are driving Tehran and Washington toward a deal on Iran's nuclear program, experts say, illustrated by movement Wednesday in talks to transfer most of the Islamic Republic's fissile material abroad to be processed for medical uses.

For decades, Iran and the U.S. have been locked in a frustrating diplomatic flirtation. When one felt strong enough to offer a deal, the other felt too weak to accept.

This time may prove to be no different. But Iran now is facing its greatest domestic political challenge in decades, unrest in South Asia is seeping across its borders and the Obama administration is committed to creative diplomacy to resolve the standoff.

On Wednesday, Iranian, American, Russian and French diplomats agreed to a proposal by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to transfer most of Iran's stockpile of nuclear material to Russia and France to be further processed for an Iranian medical research reactor.

Modest in scope, the deal fails to address many of the West's suspicions about Iran's nuclear program, including its continued production of about 7 pounds of enriched uranium a day in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, or the recently revealed secret enrichment facility at a Revolutionary Guards base near Qom.

But it would buy the U.S. and its allies a year's time by reducing Iran's uranium stockpile below the threshold necessary to produce a nuclear bomb. It also is an example of a win-win scenario often touted by security experts and diplomats, and could serve as a framework for broader agreements.

"Everybody who participated at the meeting was trying to help, trying to look to the future and not to the past, trying to heal the wounds that existed for many, many years," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna.

ElBaradei said he hoped for approval from all four countries by Friday, adding: "I cross my fingers."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech in Washington, said the U.S. was open to better relations with Iran but that the Obama administration would not wait forever.

"We are not prepared to talk just for the sake of talking," she said. "We appear to have made a constructive beginning. But that needs to be followed up by constructive actions."

Diplomacy is giving both sides the opportunity to walk away winners.

"I think that Obama and his European allies have played their hand well in using the Qom revelation to their advantage and taking advantage of Iran's various vulnerabilities to encourage it to find a way forward," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

But the medical uranium deal also implicitly legitimizes Iran's enrichment of uranium. If that is Iran's goal, it could be an ideal time for the Islamic Republic to strike a deal.

Experts say Iran is in its most vulnerable position in years. Revelation of the existence of the Qom facility has weakened it diplomatically. Scores have been killed in ethnic and sectarian violence on Iran's frontiers, including a bombing Sunday that killed at least 42 people.

Most importantly, political unrest in the wake of the disputed June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues, especially at university campuses.